People Bringing New Purpose and Values to Business

In our time of dramatic worldwide change, can business leaders meet the challenges of the marketplace and the needs of people, communities, and the planet? Merchants of Vision profiles 40 business leaders who are successfully working to do just that.

James Liebig interviewed dozens of business women and men in 70 organizations from 14 countries. He found executives, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and consultants who recognize business's pervasive global influence and have found ways to use that influence to affect positive change in people's lives and meaningful growth in their businesses. In Merchants of Vision they share their beliefs, experiences, and creative actions.

These are people of action and integrity who sustain themselves with the creative friction between their idealism and their knowledge of the real world. Their experiences-addressing issues of personal responsibility and product quality, expanding markets and shrinking natural resources, technological advancement and cultural preservation-reveal ways businesses must adapt to survive, thrive, innovate, and lead.

Published in cooperation with the World Business Academy, an international network of progressive business leaders committed to using their business expertise to make a positive difference in the world

Practical and inspiring portraits of 40 business men and women "walking their talk" by integrating their ideals in the world of commerce

In our time of dramatic worldwide change, can business leaders meet the challenges of the marketplace and the needs of people, communities, and the planet? Merchants of Vision profiles 40 business leaders who are successfully working to do just that.

James Liebig interviewed dozens of business women and men in 70 organizations from 14 countries. He found executives, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and consultants who recognize business's pervasive global influence and have found ways to use that influence to affect positive change in people's lives and meaningful growth in their businesses. In Merchants of Vision they share their beliefs, experiences, and creative actions.

These are people of action and integrity who sustain themselves with the creative friction between their idealism and their knowledge of the real world. Their experiences-addressing issues of personal responsibility and product quality, expanding markets and shrinking natural resources, technological advancement and cultural preservation-reveal ways businesses must adapt to survive, thrive, innovate, and lead.

Published in cooperation with the World Business Academy, an international network of progressive business leaders committed to using their business expertise to make a positive difference in the world

Practical and inspiring portraits of 40 business men and women "walking their talk" by integrating their ideals in the world of commerce

About the Author

James Liebig (Author)

James E. Liebig is the author of Merchants of Vision and Business Ethics: Profiles in Civic Virtue and vice chair and director of the Board of Wisconsin Community Capital, Inc. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard and an M.Div. from Yale. As a manager, personnel director, and company officer responsible for management and executive development, Liebig worked toward racial integration of workforces, promoted new hiring and education practices, and developed self-managing work teams. He left business in 1986 to consult, study, and write about exemplary business men and women.

Endorsements

"Merchants of Vision gives us multiple examples of business people adjusting to new global trends with creative, imaginative action... a marvelous, provocative compilation."

William B. Sechrest, Founder, Winstead, Sechrest, and Minick

"The merchants-leaders in large and small companies in varied industries around the world-provide vivid descriptions and examples of the enormous potential for individuals to creatively pursue life's higher purposes through work and business. The vision is concrete, noble, and exhilarating."

J. Randolph New, Dean, College of Business Administration, Loyola University, New Orleans

"Both inspirational and practical. Business leaders will benefit greatly from [these] thought-provoking insights."

Charles A. Garfield, author of Second to None and Peak Performers

"If anyone doubts that profound changes are taking place in the business world, these inspiring interviews of `new paradigm' leaders should be convincing."